If your household resembles ours in any way when bedtime is upon us then you probably know that story time will soon start, and you probably know exactly what book your kid will want for you to read to him and you will probably know that particular story by heart. Out of a huge library and repertoire of literature which includes books in English, Spanish and French and varies in scope and subject ranging from construction sites to dinosaurs who love tacos and sheep in jeeps, Evan always ends up choosing the same two or three books to be read to him every.single.night.  In my desperate attempt to bring some spice to the routine, I have even come up with different voices for each character and when I change my intonation just a bit, Evan notices and decides I’m not reading it the right way. So we go back to the same old book, with the same voices and the same ending.

When I was asked to review Story Box  I was delighted to receive what looks like a paperback book but is in fact a magazine for kids. Story Box comes with an audio CD an a delightful variety of stories, comics, activities and even scientific facts explained in a very child-friendly manner. My first thought was “Yay, we get to change tonight’s bedtime story”; Evan’s first thought was “Yay, a new book to read every single night”. Back to me, “Yay, we have two different ones, and there are over 10 different stories and articles to choose from so it will take me at least a month to learn the stories by heart”.

Story Box Magazines

Hailing from the UK these kid magazines have been awarded Parents’ Choice Gold status in the US and are used in schools throughout the US as supplementary reading material. Published by Bayard Magazines in the UK Story Box targets audiences 3 to 6 years old and have different illustrators and writers in each monthly publication. A similar format is used for Adventure Box created for 6  to 9 year-olds and Discovery Box for kids 9 to 12.

Reading about airplanes…

Although Evan is still not reading yet, he was thoroughly interested in the content of Story Box. He absolutely loved the scientific facts section since it talked about airplanes, dinosaurs and nature and I was very happy to see him exposed to all this information in a way he could understand it. Evan just turned three and his attention span is not very long, so the fact that as soon as he turned the paged opened a whole different realm and section kept him interested for a while.

Evan enjoyed the different sections

A good portion of the magazine includes different activities such as crossword puzzles, follow-the-dots, fill in the blank and even fun cryptograms. Evan wasn’t too interested in them but I bet older kids would love to play with them and anxiously await the arrival of a new Story Box just as many of us crave the Sunday crossword puzzle.

Overall, we really enjoyed reading Story Box. The different activities and themes make it for a fun and entertaining read. As a mom I loved seeing all the different scientific facts explained to kids in a simple way and was so happy to have new material to read to Evan at night. Evan was very excited to see the comics and the pictures and wanted to be read the stories a few times. If you want to check Story Box out you can see some samples here, here and here. I would recommend anyone to get a subscription to Story Box. After all, who doesn’t want a whole new magazine to devour every single month?

A little bit of science

A little bit of Fiction

And a whole lot of fun!

In Jakarta you will find Story Box magazines at Aksara and Kinokuniya Bookstores. If you are anywhere else in Indonesia , you are able to get a subscription thru Our Book Club. They have subscribers in Jakarta and vicinity, Bandung and Cirebon and they are able to deliver anywhere in Indonesia. If you want further information you can contact Our Book Club by email or call them at +62-21-390-6991.

Happy Reading!